DUBAI, UAE (ANS) -- Imagine the scene: A war is raging just hundreds of miles away in Iraq and some hundreds of believers from 40 nations are packed into a room in a villa in Dubai City for a second service on a Friday morning. The multi-nation worship band is leading worship as people sing with gusto surrounded by flags from each of their countries. Even though they are packed like sardines, to each of them this is a "slice of heaven."
After the second English-language service finishes, members of the Arab Evangelical Church take over in the same room and begin their service in Arabic under the banner of "A Prayer House for All Nations."
In a nearby room, about 70 new believers from mainland China have been meeting for their weekly Friday service (the main weekend day in Dubai). When they return home, they will be taking their faith with them.
During a recent visit to Dubai, we were able to talk with Canadian-born Daniel Splett, Senior Pastor of the United Christian Church of Dubai.
Splett, who is from Calgary, explained that he has been at the church now for 6 ½ years, and then told how he and his wife came to move to Dubai. "My wife had been here 20 years ago as a single missionary to teach school in Abu Dhabi and so she keep a contact with the Emirates through missionaries with TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) and that’s how we got connected here," he said. "This local church was looking for a pastor and these local missionaries called us to pursue it and that’s how we ended up here."
He then shared how missionaries had set up the first hospitals in Dubai in the sixties and some of the children and grandchildren of the country’s leaders had been born there.
"That opened up a positive feeling towards Christians and then, of course, with the discovery of oil, they needed oil workers and so Christians came as oil workers here and they wanted a place to meet as churches and the ruler was open to that because of the good feelings towards the hospital work," said Splett.
Churches Growing Fast
"The churches here are growing significantly, particularly during the last five to ten years At Holy Trinity, the Anglican Church center. Over 75 congregations meets every week at that facility. At our little villa here, where we can squeeze in about 275, we have about 12 congregations that meet here every week. We have a congregation now of 750 people. In our church we have about 40 nationalities, the biggest being Asian, then Africans, followed by Europeans. The biggest Asian group are Indians and then Filipinos. We also have lots of South Africans and Australians. And that’s just in our English church."
The Dubai Evangelical Christian Centre
An exciting development for the evangelicals of Dubai is the Dubai Evangelical Church Centre (DECC) on the outskirts if Dubai City. Daniel Splett explained how it came about:
"With the benevolent feelings towards Christians because of that charity work, the ruler has on occasion, given land first to the Anglicans, then to the Catholic Church and now to evangelical churches and we are now constructing a centre on the edge of the city," he said.
"The vision is for this centre to be an evangelical lighthouse in the Middle East, not only for our churches, but also many other evangelical churches and also in the region, missionaries, fulltime workers, pastors, tentmakers, to come to Dubai, where it is a lot freer and lot more things happening here as far as recreation, and they can get here much easier. They can come from neighboring countries like Saudi and Yemen and Iran from the north for conferences; for worship events, for training, from a break from the intensity of ministry in some of those regions.
The Desert Challenge
"This last year, we have had a large youth event called The Desert Challenge. Kids and adults came from about six different countries including Saudi Arabia, and that’s part of the vision; is to be a center for the whole Middle East; for people to get encouraged and be taught the Word of God and trained in evangelism and sharing their faith. And also our present facility is way too small, it enables us to expand and also to provide more meeting halls for many of the congregations that have no place to meet, or their place is too limited. We have 12 groups already meeting in this place [the villa] and we envisage 25-30 within a year or two meeting at the big Dubai Evangelical Church Center."
He then shared about how important it is for Christians in Dubai to learn to serve others.
"I think by being a friend and a servant to people of different nationalities is critical," he said. I find as I go shopping in different little shops in this area, by being gracious and kind and by building those friendships, it opens doors to share my faith in my Christ, even if they are faiths of this region."
He said that among the highlights of his time in Dubai has been "the growth of the church" and seeing "many people come to Christ from different countries."
When asked if the war in Iraq affected Christians in Dubai, he said, "I would say that there is a bit of anxiety that people are carrying. We have implemented a few security procedures as far as when people come, we check off their names, we approach the Dubai police and get their okay and they say there are no threats here and they are not concerned about security issues, but as a church it does concern me. People are anxious and uptight and we are seeking to assure them of God’s presence and God’s call and that you don’t just up and leave when things get a little upsetting, but you see yourself as planted here for such a time as this as it says in Esther 4:14."
